Desal costs unrealistic says expert

Opponents of the Wonthaggi desalination plant says the Victorian Government is deliberately understating the cost of desalinated water.

A mathematics lecturer at Melbourne University says he was unable to calculate the cost of water from the plant, because the Government had blacked-out key equations in its costings.

WaterShed's Stephen Cannon says the Government has stated that water from the plant will cost about $1.37 per kilolitre.

He says that is an unrealistic estimate.

"There's no way that Melbourne will ever need sufficient water to warrant the continuous running of this 150 gigalitre plant for the project life of 30 years and so to base a cost on that scenario is to understate the real cost that Victorians will pay for water," he said.

Meanwhile, the Bass Coast Shire says an influx of desalination workers will not push up rental prices in the shire.

It has launched a website which lists holiday houses available for lease to desalination workers.

CEO Allen Bawden says there are about 10,000 holiday houses in the shire, and there will not be a big increase in competition in the rental market.

"We thought it would be quite achievable to free up say 500 houses for the desalination workers," he said.

"We're satisfied that we've got over 600 landlords interested at this stage, so we're pretty confident that we're going to meet the needs of the project without unduly impacting on the existing private rental market or the short-term holiday market."